Bad year for Dems could mean Feingold loss

Russ Feingold has tons of respect from people who pay attention. I have countless anecdotes about conservatives who vote for Feingold because they respect his honesty, intelligence and commitment to principle. But that only means that history will look kindly on him. That does not mean the 2010 midterm elections will. Here are some polls I forgot to post last week:

In a new Rasmussen poll, Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold (D) fails to garner 50 percent against two announced Republican challengers, while he trails former Gov. Tommy Thompson, who has yet to say whether he will run. Thompson led Feingold by a similar margin last month.

Thompson 48, Feingold 43

Feingold 47, Wall 39

Feingold 47, Westlake 37

For Feingold to lose against Wall or Westlake the Democrats will have to do really badly. If the economy is still in bad shape (and showing no signs of improvement) Obama and his party is going to get hammered. Feingold will not be immune to the damage.

7 Responses to “Bad year for Dems could mean Feingold loss”

In some states, with some candidates, a bad year for Dems will be a problem. I think enough citizens of Wisconsin are smart enough to realize that Feingold is good for them. The numbers against Wall and Westlake don’t look that bad, remember Feingold never wins by THAT much, Wisconsin is fairly conservative. If Tommy actually ran I think enough would come out about his pocket-padding after leaving public service that voters would turn against him in numbers enough to cost him the election. That said I don’t think there is ANY chance of him running, although I said the same thing about Obama three or four years ago.
Now if Kohl was up this year, I could see him losing.

That poll looked to be a couple years old, but what is important is that Kohl isn’t running now. If he was, he would be under severe attack which would damage his ratings. He is rich, has been in the Senate four (I think) years longer than Feingold, and we really don’t hear much out of him. I guess that could work to his advantage at some points (it could be why he has higher ratings than Feingold in the poll you linked; low profile, not pissing anybody off) but I would be more concerned right now about keeping the seat a D if Kohl had to defend it.

Rasmussen polling traditionally inflates numbers for Republicans….just go take a look back at Rasmussen’s polling of the 2006 gubernatorial race or his polling of Wisconsin before the 2008 election for proof of that.